That Blah Time of Year

[Mike Walerak]

Did anyne else get a little bit more depressed when the snow came over the weekend? It seems like the transition period is taking forever this year. The ice off in my area was halted over the weekend. It looks like the ice fishermen are counting their days too, as my open water searches only found fishermen on Lake Sinai. The other lakes are looking pretty crummy and I would not reccomend heading out.

usually my wife likes this time of year when I am around the house but I will say that she is actually ready to get me back in the boat and out of her hair. She keeps waking up when I am having nightmares of broken lines and losing fish at boatside.

mw

[Aberdak]

I was thinking about icefishing on Sunday afternoon 03/20/2005, but with temps near freezing and an east wind at about 15 to 20 steady I decided to watch Duke win in the big basketball tournament. How many of the rest of you guys bagged fishing yesterday to take a nap and or watch basketball or nascar. It was my first Sunday off from icefishing in quite awhile. bye

[DeBo101]

That blah time of year??? There is no such thing in South Dakota. There is always a little open water or a decent ice bite somewhere. This is my second spring in Minnesota after moving from SD and it is driving me crazy again. Sure isn't much fun not being able to fish for anything besides panfish. Oh well just have to keep making weekend trips back home .

[jdbigeye]

Well slim, I am not too surprised with your attitude, since you never could sit still in during one of Carson's eductional courses on trees or Aldo Leopold. I can't believe you didn't drive the wife crazy a little sooner.

Anyway, the plan still stands to leave Thursday evening to head out there. I will have one buddy coming with. We were gonna hunt those white sky carp probably until Saturday evening.

If the fishing is looking that poor, I won't bother bringing any stuff with.

Oh yeah, just curious what your plans were for the border opener, if you'll be fishing B.S. or Traverse.

Let me know what's up.

Good Tuggin'

[Mike Walerak]

That sounds great! I was out pass shooting last evening and bagged some. Should have had a truck load though. I think my barrel is bent!

I think I am heading out right now to see if I can sneak out on the ice somewhere.

mw

[Mike Walerak]

DeBo,

It really is'nt that bad. Like Jdbigeye said I get board pretty easy. I have just lost the excitment of ice fishing for the year and am dying to get in the boat and get down to business.

mw

[Mike Walerak]

Better bring your Vexilar. I have plenty of rods to use. Was out last night a popped a few walleyes at sundown.

mw

[ivegottabite]

Mike-

Are you going to be around this weekend? I am coming back to the brookings area. How's the ice looking? Still 2 plus feet of ice around detroit lakes area.

[Mike Walerak]

I will be around for the most part. It sounds like I will be goose hunting primarliy. I was out on Sinai last night and there was about 18" of crappy ice. I did see an ATV drive all the way across the lake.

The 81 ponds might be an option if you are daring. (I'm not)

[eyepatrol]

Hey fellas. I don't live out in SD anymore, but I did go to SDSU for a little better than 4 years. One thing me and my buddies would do, and I'm trying to remember back here, was to go to the Flandrau River is it or Flandrau Dam near the city of Flandrau?? I remember Flandrau being mentioned and there was a small dam, like maybe 10 feet high, where we'd be just downstream of the dam maybe 100 yards by a bridge and would have some pretty good success catching 18"-20" walleyes. Usually fished it in mid to late March and early April, before we got into final exam time. Anyway, we stood from shore and it sure was a nice break from the studying and being cooped up in a dorm or house.

Don't know if I'm making sense to anyone here as it's been 10 years since I was out there, but that's about what I remember of it. Might be worth a try if the ice isn't safe for travel.

Good luck and good fishin'.

[ifishsd]

It's the big Sioux River and there is a dam there people catch walleyes at.

[eyepatrol]

ifishsd

That's the one I was thinking of. Just couldn't remember the name of the river.

I had most of my success using a 1/4oz fl. green fuzzy grub with a fathead retrieved very slowly with a tiny quick popping motion to it. Walleyes bit like a perch that time of year.

Also had some success fishing Thompson that way. I don't hardly remember that lake, but what I do remember is driving out to a point I think and fishing from shore. Also fished near a road bridge at night on Poinsette (sp?) and had decent success catching 'eyes with twister tales. None of us had a boat so we always were fishing from shore. Kinda miss those days, but glad to be out of school!

[Mike Walerak]

Well, that blah time of year is over. Thompson, the 81 ponds, Pionsett and a few other little ones have opened up and are fishable from a boat. Lake Sinai still has quite a bit of ice so it will be a few days before that opens up.

mw

[JerknPerchSD]

I"m pretty shure when I drove by Thompson on Friday it was still 1/2 if not 3/4 frozen over. When did you see it?

[Rost]

Fished Madison a few times in the boat already this year. She's wide open. Fishing is slow.

[Mike Walerak]

I personally have not seen it. I id talk to a few guys that fished off the Olham Grade and saw boat just out form there.

My wife is making me take her out tonight after supper. I think we are going to hit the 81 ponds for an hour or so.

mw

[jdbigeye]

Any hawgs floppin' in the bottom of that Pro-V yet?

We were supposed to be headed to Rainy this weekend, but that got canned with the dirty water flush. Its alright though, since it will give me a chance to get the boat ready and find all my gear. We have rooms in Wheaton for the border opener on Traverse. Did you know if you were gonna be out there that weekend?

If not, I will be getting a hold of you for some help!

Chris and I will have to atleast out-fish Matt's boat!

Otherwise its gonna be crappie and catfishin' from shore down here by Fairmont. A lot more water here than I expected.

Oh yeah, I ran into Baldwin at Marshall. Give me a call, I gotta tell ya about it.